Channel Innovation

I like paper in my day to day work life. I do a lot on my computer, but many times I jot todos, notes and observations down. The Franklin Planner, my original time management paper planner resulted in signing up for and completing an MBA program. Somewhere along my paper journey I found Levenger for pens and notebooks and later Circa. Circa is a binding system for notebooks based upon discs and specially punched paper that allows you to pull out and reposition the paper. I was thrilled. I shared with colleagues and friends and eventually, I needed to find out where they came up with this idea.

The idea came from someone else! Shock! A company called Rollabind. They made products for schools, notebooks and scrapbooking. They weren't the greatest looking products at the time. You could buy a bag of multicolor discs but what would I do with the pink ones?

Levenger found a great idea and introduced it to a new channel as an even better idea. Black discs, various high quality ruled papers, clean planner-competing sizes and leather covers. Black, brown red. It fit very nicely into their offering of the finest office products around. Their prices were also a bit higher than the purple discs of Rollabind.

Understanding channels characteristics and insights are important part of innovation. How you introduce, shape, price and manage your product offering in particular channels are essential for success. Yellow discs may not have brought Levenger the same level of success.